Many organizations have facilities spread around the world. To communicate between the different facilities, organizations generally employ conferencing systems. A method for conferencing between two facilities in different parts of the world is called a global conference. The global conference often involves two conference bridges that organize and conduct the conference. A first conference bridge manages the conference in the first location and the second conference bridge manages the conference in the second location. The two conference bridges then communicate between each other to conduct the conference. This arrangement eliminates the need for all participants to dial into a single conference bridge, which saves long distance charges.
Unfortunately, the global conferences are only managed locally. Thus, to an end user, the conference only appears to be conducted with the members connected to the local conference bridge. There is no sharing of information between the conference bridges during a global conference. Additionally, commands are not propagated between the two conference bridges. For example, if a moderator is present on one of the conference bridges, and the moderator wishes to use an operation or function in the conference (for example, lecture mode, which mutes all phones but one), then the operational change is executed at the local conference bridge but not the distant conference bridge. Still further, the conference bridges cannot provide an accurate graphical depiction of the distributed conference because information about the distant conference bridge is unknown.
Current global conferences also cannot use two or more protocols, e.g., using one communications protocol (such as, instant messaging using Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP)) for a first conference bridge and then adding communication channels which are supported by other protocols (such as, audio or video communication using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)) at a second conference bridge. Finally, different users on a conference may have different communication capabilities available to them. These different capabilities are often not communicated with other users, especially users at distant conference bridges.